And, most of all, these women remembered what their mothers and grandmothers had learned from the Romans, the Byzantines, the Turks, and the Mongols: that history almost always repeats itself. And it is almost always written by men.
— Chapter 1

“You should not be concerned about me,” he says.
“But you get to worry about me? That doesn’t quite sound fair.”
— Chapter 28

None of us are entirely free of our past and in some way or another it will always catch up to us. Your past might even come back to haunt you and that is fine ... to some extent. But when it comes back to hunt you there is definitely something very very wrong.
Second book in this series and I couldn’t be more invested if I put all of my (imaginary) trust fund in it. I admire Ally Carter for her ability to write these completely inscrutable characters whom you don’t quite trust. Even or especially when they are your narrator. Add to that political intrigue and some crime investigation or other and you can be sure that I won’t come up for air unless absolutely necessary. Well, that and other pesky things called grown-up responsibilities (really, whoever invented those).

Have you ever considered playing hooky with a book (or have you?)? And if so, which one? Share your thoughts and teasers in the comments.

“Missing but not lost, absent but not gone, unseen but not unheard. Find us while we still draw breath.”
— Chapter 1

Perhaps it was: realizing the world was not obliged to give you what you wanted, and, more importantly, deciding what you would do and how you would feel once the realization arrived. Would you sit back and resent the world? Would you make peace with it, and accept the unfairness without rancor? Or would you try to find and take what the world had not provided? Maybe all three, she reflected, at different moments.
— Chapter 39

My memory is far from perfect (admittedly, it is quite good, but ... never mind) so for some series it takes a while before I manage to get back into the mindset the story requires. This might be for various reasons like a complex setting or a peculiar set of realities or a varying cast of characters. For this it was a mixture of the setting and the added rules during the last book that I needed a while to recover before the story gripped me again. But I remembered that I had needed a few chapters for the first book as well and was later so very glad that I stuck with it and the same is true for this one! What a great adventure and such an elaborate world. I still wonder how it works precisely, but that can be put aside to take part in this expedition.
I’m almost at the end an I’m dreading it ... but since it took me so long to get to this, the third and final book will be out in just a few months. I’m just counting my blessings that not all my anticipated books release at the same time. That would inevitably lead to an absolute melt down.

And that begs the question: If you could have all your most anticipated books at the same time how would you choose which to read first? Share your way of prioritising along with your teasers in the comments.

You can’t have smart people lingering around for too long in horror movies. Otherwise they come up with solutions and not enough people die.
— Chapter 12

Julia knew that there were moments in your life that meant something but passed by unnoticed, and she knew that this was not one of them.
— Chapter 21

Almost everyone has a To-Do list ... not necessarily a written one, but maybe a mental one (and then you forget the baking soda and are totally screwed). Then there are rules, and those can also be written down or agreed upon (and can be equally bad if you break them). Wishes, also written or just in your head. Humans love lists, but the question is if they have more power if they are solidified in ink on paper? For this book this seems true as the two protagonists follow their rules to high school quite religiously and while they make for an interesting experience they also function as a kind of cage. And maybe some rules are meant to be broken
I enjoyed quite a few aspects of this story as they are realistic and comprehensible. No one would set out to have a mediocre or unmemorable high school experience I think and by giving it this twist of actually having followed an agreed upon set of ideals for most of the time and then deliberately breaking them makes for a unique perspective. This wouldn’t have worked if the two weren’t so extremely co-dependent and sort of exploiting each other or I’d rather say existed in a symbiosis as they don’t wilfully harm each other.

What sort of lists do you have either physical or mental ones ... apart from you TBR? Share them and teasers in the comments!

Don’t mind him. He’s allowed one day of good nature a year and he’s already spent it.
— Chapter 3

“A bad idea is better than no idea,” Etta said.
“I’m glad you feel that way, because this is an exquisitely bad one.”
— Chapter 11

Happy 2016, everyone! I hope you had a good start of the year and I wish upon all of you some brilliant books this year. Please excuse my unplanned disappearance last week I was a little blindsided by non-book life (I know, the impertinence!). But now back to the pleasant things and I already don’t know how to put it into different words for this book apart from that I am absolutely and completely in LOVE with it! It is a hyped book and in this case it is so very much deserved. I want this book to succeed and to get all the attention it can because it is so utterly wonderful inside and out. I could constantly look at the cover to admire the not-mirrored mirror image ... and yes the writing is detailed and extensive, but that is also what invokes this lush, deep, and textured feeling.
There are some parts of the time travel technicalities that I didn’t completely understand, but that is the very nature of this premise I’d think ... at least it makes a lot more sense than many other time travel books I read before. Especially the rule that you can’t exist in the same moment twice and would therefore not be able to go back to re-write last week’s history.
In short: This book has all the things I wanted from history to adventure to scientific logic (to a certain degree), and yes, also a very compelling love story. And now I must find out how I can travel to 2017 to get my hands on the sequel. Damn you, cliffhanger authors, why must I love you so much?

Do you have any resolutions for this year? Mine is to avoid a certain online retailer as much as possible and order my books through other channels. Even if that means waiting longer for them to arrive. I was more or less unconsciously doing so already but now I want to find out how long I can actually manage without ordering there at all. Let me know your resolution and challenges along with your teasers in the comments!